In this series, we will cover what tour racing (multi day races) is in cycling. It can be very confusing to the casual viewer what the heck is going on - multiple teams, jerseys, races within the race, climbing, sprinting, etc. this is meant ONLY as a primer for the newbies out there trying to figure all this stuff out. It is not meant as an exhaustive treatise on bicycle racing.
First, multi day bicycle racing is a team sport. Like other team sports, you can't get away from not contributing. In cycling, no matter what you still have to drag yourself up and over all the mountains the course hands you. All riders can't have a really off day and not contribute as teammates are needed each day to win.
Multi day races have multiple competitions within the overall race, which we will get to in following stories. However, the primary race is to be the OVERALL race leader, the individual rider with the LOWEST ACCUMULATED TIME for the entire race. This means the winner may not win any individual day of the race, however, they are the most consistent top finisher of all the days of racing. Time for each day of racing is added to all previous days to calculate the overall race leader / winner. We will get into more detail about how all this works later.
What is a Grand Tour?
The Grand Tours are the three uber-famous European multi-week races you probably have heard of: Giro d'Italia (May), le Tour de France (July), and the Vuelta a Espana (Aug-Sept). They are the only 3 races allowed to take longer than 14 days and award the most points (more later) and are the most prestigious.
What is a Tour?
A Tour is pretty much all other multiday races at the professional level. These include the Amgen Tour of California (US), USA Pro Cycling Challenge (US), Tour of Utah (US), Tour de Suisse (CH), and many others. They are two to ten days long and vary in course layout, depending on the terrain and time of the year. Races are rated by the international cycling authority (UCI) which helps teams determine what races to go to, in addition to who comes to watch the race.
OK, so what is the make up of a team?
A Cycling Team is made up (typically) of 25 professional riders that can form into two squads to cover more races over the course of the race year. Typically the A-race team will take on the Grand Tours, while the B-team will focus on single day races. Each team is different, and some have multiple strong riders, and so may concentrate just on the Grand Tours with different rider make-ups. We will discuss more the types of riders (specialties) in a later edition.
Teams (here we will only focus on international-level race teams - ProTour, not national, regional, or club level teams) are made up of cyclists from all different countries. Much like a baseball or football team is not comprised of athletes just from the home city, cycling teams are very international in their make up. Of course this can lead to some language barriers, so many teams will adopt a primary language, though most cyclists learn to speak at least a few languages over their career.
Teams are known by their sponsor names, such as Radioshack-Leopard, Garmin-Sharp, BMC, etc. National teams (sponsored by countries) do exist, however, the international teams are predominantly funded privately through sponsors looking to advertise their brand or product across Europe and North America. The cost to fund a top international team can be as high as $20 Million a year, with lead sponsorship bringing in about a third to half of that. Professional riders get paid nothing like other pro athletes, however minimums have come up in the past few years so that almost all pro Tour riders are now paid north of $100K (USD), and top pros in the millions.
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| George Hincapie. |
Riders are generally categorized as GC (overall) leaders (think big named cyclists), sprinters, mountain specialists, and domestiques. The last category makes up the bulk of the riders - the teammates that will work to help support the leaders of their team throughout the race. Many are young riders who are in their first few years of riding, or they are strong, older riders who are now on teams to help provide support and overall guidance. Most riders whole careers are spent as domestiques. One of the most famous American domestiques is George Hincapie, who supported Lance Armstrong and other race leaders in 17 Tours de France and many other races.
How do teammates help each other?
Racing at 25 MPH (or more) for hours a day, for a week or more is brutally exhausting work. Teammates help each other by first protecting each other from exhaustion, taking time 'at the front', taking on the bulk of the wind and setting the pace for other riders. Domestiques will also often be responsible for picking up extra water bottles, food, and even giving up their bikes if needed for team leaders if there is a problem. For mountain climbers, teammates help set a fast pace to help exhaust the pack (in French, the peloton) before they take over. For sprinters, teammates 'lead out' their fastest riders at the end of a stage, picking up the speed to 35-40 MPH, before the last 100-200 meter kick that the sprinter will take over. There are a lot of roles for teammates, and through this blog series, we will explain more in detail, including describing what the team competition is within the race.
You should now have some understanding:
- What multi-day bicycle racing is.
- That multi-day bicycle racing is a team sport.
- That teams are made up of riders of multiple specialties.
NEXT: Who's winning?
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